A Matter of Worth
by mercy-angel-09
Summary: There's a difference between wondering if you're cut out of the job and straight up crippling self-doubt. [Ladynoir, Adrienette, by far the safest thing I've ever written for this fandom, x-posted on AO3.]
**So after watching "Volpina" I got a bit of a plot bunny and thus here we are. A bit of a more "traditional" writing style than what most of you are probably used to from me (unless you've read my stuff from my other fandoms, in which case expect this to be more in line with those).**

 **And yes, the first ten or so lines of dialogue are taken directly from the episode. Seemed like the best way to transition from the episode into the fic.**

* * *

Gazing over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower, Ladybug bit her lip. Something in her gut told her that Lila was going to be a continued pain in the neck for her and Chat Noir. Things were far from over. That point considered, there was still something niggling in the back of her mind.

"We still have a problem to resolve, Chat Noir," Ladybug said. "Where is the real Adrien?" This had been bothering her for a while now. Volpina had appeared to be holding Adrien hostage, and right when Ladybug had been ready to give up everything Chat Noir had called her bluff and destroyed the illusion. If Adrien wasn't at the Eiffel Tower, then where was he?

From next to her, Chat pipped up. "Everything went back to normal, no? So he must have gone back home…"

Something in his tone set off warning bells in Ladybug's mind. "I have to go check," she said, fisting her hand. She had to see that he was okay with her own eyes before she'd be able to rest easy.

"No!" Chat blurted. "Leave it, I'll go." When her earring beeped a warning he gave her a smug look. "You're going to detransform."

Unfortunately for him, his ring gave out a warning beep of its own. "Uh, you too," she pointed out. "No buts, I'm telling you I'm on it."

She jumped from the tower and swung her yoyo, making her way along the Paris rooftops to the Agreste mansion. There was a brief moment where she wondered if Chat Noir would follow, but a glance over her shoulder showed that no one was behind her. Good. She could talk with Adrien in peace. (She certainly didn't want to imagine Chat freaking out because she paid more attention to Adrien than him. Jealous Chat was a bit of a pain to work with.)

With ease she swung into Adrien's bedroom through the still open window. It was empty, which left Ladybug to assume that he was perhaps in the bathroom. "Adrien?" she called out. "Are you in there?" She slid the door open and took a few steps into the bathroom. "Can I come in?"

The sound of the water switching on caused her to panic, and with a startled yelp she jumped from the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her. "Er, it's Ladybug. Say, is everything alright?" she called, mentally kicking herself over how awkward she sounded.

"Er, yes…yes!" Adrien called back. "With all of this excitement, I wanted to take a nice shower."

Odd, but no different than when she'd dealt with Jackady. Nino had chalked it up to Adrien's model side. Really, now that she thought about it, it probably wasn't that weird. "Oh! Y-yes, of course. Right, well in that case, I'm gonna go then."

"Thanks, eh?" he called back.

Ladybug leaned her forehead against the cool wood of the door. God, what was she even doing here? She supposed after seeing an illusion of Volpina dangling a helpless Adrien from the Eiffel Tower had rattled her more than she'd thought. Sweet, kind, trusting Adrien, taken advantage of by a girl who got what she wanted by lying. A lot.

"I'm sorry," she blurted, blinking rapidly to keep the tears burning her eyes at bay. "I'm sorry."

"Uh, what?" came his muffled reply.

"I'm sorry," she said louder. "I reacted horribly to that girl's lies. It's just…I don't…I don't like liars." She exhaled and then continued. "Four years of endless bullying from a girl in my class who lied about it constantly has made me hyper sensitive to it. She tormented me, and if I tried to report her to the teachers, she'd lie and then throw around her family's name and make it look like I was the one who was bullying her! I hate it! I hate her!"

By now, tears were streaming down her cheeks. Her earring gave off another warning beep; she only had two minutes left but she had to get this out. She had to get Adrien to understand why she'd flown off the handle with Lila earlier. "You must have thought I was perfect, but I'm not. I'm not! I'm a petty, jealous, teenaged girl who hates seeing good people taken advantage of!" Knees buckling, Ladybug slid to the floor and continued to sob. "I'm a terrible person. I don't deserve to be Ladybug."

Sliding to the floor, she landed in a heap at the base of the door, sobs wracking her body. "I'm not worthy," she cried. "I'm not worthy at all!"

On the other side of the door, Adrien swallowed the lump in his throat. It wasn't that he'd never seen (or heard) Ladybug be so unsure of herself before, but there was a difference between wondering if you were cut out of the job and straight up crippling self-doubt. He'd released his transformation shortly before she had blurted out that she was sorry the first time, anticipating that she'd be on her way since she didn't have much time on her transformation left. He absolutely did not anticipate that she'd be having a breakdown in front of his bathroom.

He slid the door open and looked down at her, her body crumpled on the floor as she cried. Her earring beeped and Adrien estimated she had a minute until her transformation wore off. A sudden crisis of conscience struck him. On the one hand, he could finally find out who was under that mask. On the other hand, the one thing Ladybug had been hard and fast about since day one was nobody could find out her secret identity.

"Um, Ladybug, something beeped. Was that a warning?" he said, trying to give her enough time to escape with her civilian identity intact.

Ladybug cried on, and Adrien realized that she was more upset at herself than he had originally realized. Kneeling on the floor in front of him, he carefully scooped her into his arms. "It's okay, Ladybug," he said softly, "everyone makes mistakes."

"I even apologized to her," Ladybug sniffled as she buried her face in the crook of his neck. Adrien felt his pulse spike. "She didn't accept it and not like I blame her or anything…"

"Then that's her problem, not yours," he said firmly. "You acknowledged your mistake. You don't have to do anything else."

Ladybug nodded and clutched him tighter.

Before she could say anything more, Adrien felt the fabric under his hands shift from the material that made up her suit to something else. He sucked in a breath as he realized that her transformation had finally given out.

"Uh, Ladybug…"

"It's fine," she said, voice shaky. "Because she wasn't the only one lying to you. I've been lying to you, too."

"What?" he squawked. "What are you talking about?!"

"Look at me," she said softly as she started to pull away from his arms.

Adrien squeezed his eyes shut. "N-no, I can't!"

"Augh, Adrien, just look at me!" she said, putting her hands against his cheeks. They were soft, though he could feel callouses on the tips of her fingers. A battle waged within his head until he realized that she wouldn't leave until he looked at her.

He took his time opening his eyes, his head bowed so he wouldn't immediately see her face. A pair of pink clad knees came into view and he frowned. Why was that familiar? Then a white tee-shirt with a gray jacket that had lining of white with pink polka dots all over it. The familiar design of a branch with cherry blossoms was splashed across the right side of her shirt.

Oh, oh God.

Marinette's familiar blue eyes were guarded as Adrien's gaze worked its way up her face. A laugh bubbled up as he realized how absurd the situation was. He'd been looking for his lady everywhere, and she'd been right behind him the whole time.

Her face fell as Adrien's laughter intensified. Slowly she got to her feet and started to walk towards the window. "That's why I didn't want to tell anyone," she said softly. "Because everyone would laugh at me. But it's unfair of me to blow up at Lila for lying to you when I do it every single day."

Realizing that Marinette had misunderstood the cause of his laughter, Adrien scrambled to his feet and stumbled after her. He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his face against the side of her head. "I'm not laughing at you for being Ladybug," he assured her. "I'm laughing at myself for being an incredibly dense moron."

"What?" she squeaked.

"I've been looking everywhere for you since the day we met and the whole time you were sitting right behind me in school," he explained. Marinette let out a soft hum of acknowledgement, but she didn't say anything. Adrien plowed on. "Lila was wrong, by the way. She assumed that I liked Ladybug because she was famous and popular and a superhero. What she doesn't know is that I love Ladybug because she is kind and brave. I fell for the girl who was afraid, but fought anyway. I fell for the girl who told Hawk Moth exactly where he could stick his akuma when he dared to make us look like the bad guys. I fell for the girl who cares so much for her classmates that she'll do whatever it takes to bring them back when they've been infected by an akuma. I don't care that Ladybug is famous and popular. I am not that shallow. I have always loved the girl beneath the mask, the one who believes in truth and justice and fights for it."

Marinette was silent as Adrien rambled on, but something had stuck out and she couldn't quite leave it alone. "Wait, what do you mean by us? You said 'when he dared to make us look like the bad guys.'"

"Ah, so I did," Adrien said with a small smile as he turned Marinette in his arms so she was facing him. "I didn't misspeak, if that's what you're wondering."

A small black figure hovered over Adrien's shoulder, causing Marinette's eyes to widen. "Kwami," she said as she pointed at Plagg.

"Yup, kwami," he answered.

"But that would mean-"

"I'm afraid so."

"This whole time you-"

"From that moment you crashed into my life," Adrien said with a grin. "Literally."

Her jaw dropped. "Oh my God, it really is you."

He sketched a bow. "In the flesh, my Lady."

Now it was Marinette's turn to laugh. The irony, oh the irony! Not even Shakespeare could have come up with something as ridiculous as this.

"Hey, I'm not kitten around over here," Adrien quipped and Marinette laughed harder as she threw herself into his arms.

"Oh kitty," she sighed against him. "Who knew that deep down, Adrien Agreste loves bad puns and is an outrageous flirt."

"I'm not outrageous!" he said in indignation.

"Yes, you are, kitten. You've been coming on so strongly I just assumed it was an act, that you weren't really serious," she answered

"I didn't realize," Adrien said sheepishly. Well, that would explain why Ladybug had easily rebuffed his advances.

"It's okay. Suddenly it makes sense that you don't understand the subtleties of flirting," Marinette said as she gave him a squeeze.

"Well…would you understand the subtleties of this?" Adrien asked before he brushed his lips against hers.

In terms of kisses it was chaste, a brief pressing of two sets of lips together. Not dissimilar to when she had kissed him to break the spell of the Dark Cupid. Marinette's heart skipped a beat, as she realized that she had been able to save Chat Noir from the curse because he loved her as Ladybug, and she loved him as Adrien. They were, on a technicality, in love with each other. Okay, it was time to stop thinking about that – it made her brain hurt.

Marinette sighed as she snuggled up against him after they broke the kiss. "What are we going to do about Lila?"

"I say we do nothing," Adrien said as he rubbed her back. "Her lies will blow up in her face eventually. Our class isn't stupid."

"We may have to face her as Volpina again."

Adrien gave Marinette a reassuring squeeze. "Ah, but this time we know how her powers work and even if she dangles a fake me off the Eiffel Tower again, you won't fall for it because you'll know that I'm actually right next to you."

There was no denying that. "Yeah. Next time, we'll be ready for her."

"Anyway, you should probably get home. I'll see you at school tomorrow," Adrien said as he loosened his grip on her.

"Right, school. Tomorrow." She scrunched up her face. "Did we have homework?"

"No, no homework," Adrien said with a smile. He leaned down to press a kiss against her forehead. "Until tomorrow, my Lady."

"Until tomorrow, kitty." She grinned then called out, "Tikki! Spots on!" Soon Ladybug stood in front of him. She gave him a small salute before slinging her yoyo out the window and swinging away.

Adrien flopped down on his couch, watching the red blur disappear along the Paris rooftops. Plagg floated near his head. "I can't believe she was sitting right behind me the whole time. I should have noticed!"

"The transformation magic tends to blur one's memories about the facial features of a Miraculous wielder," Plagg explained. "Unless you watched her transform or de-transform in front of you, you wouldn't be able to put it together. The magic only works when someone doesn't know the truth. It's also why Marinette didn't recognize you as Chat Noir even though she saw you nearly every day."

"So I would have never found out?" Adrien asked, horrified at the thought of never knowing who Ladybug really was.

"I wouldn't go that far," Plagg said. "There are ways people can figure it out on their own, but the magic usually makes them consider it impossible. Now, can I have some camembert? I'm going to starve to death."

"Yeah, I think you've earned it today," Adrien said as he walked over to the mini-fridge to pull out some cheese for his kwami.

The next day when Adrien arrived at school, he was unsurprised to see Lila grilling Marinette on the front steps.

"I modeled for Dolce and Gabbana, and let me tell you, the upcoming collection is off the hook," Lila said. "Maybe I can introduce you, although they may not have the time for an amateur like you."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Marinette said tightly. "I plan on making into the industry on my own merit."

Lila shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"Marinette, there you are!" Adrien called as he bounded up the steps two at a time. He leaned down and gave her a swift kiss before putting his arm around her shoulders. Then he acknowledged Lila. "Oh, hi Lila. Didn't see you there. I see you've met my girlfriend, Marinette."

Marinette pursed her lips to stop the laughter that threatened to spill out. She slid her arm around his waist and leaned against him, all the while watching Lila's hazel eyes widen in surprise. And probably horror.

"Girlfriend?!" Lila blurted.

"We've been keeping it on the down low, but yes, girlfriend," Adrien said. "Sorry I didn't get around to telling you about her yesterday."

"I…I…I…" Lila stuttered.

"Come on, Marinette, time to get to class," Adrien said as he snagged her hand and lead her into the school.

Marinette allowed herself to be tugged along, only stopping when they were right outside their classroom. "Wait, Adrien," she said. She dropped his hand and looked down at the floor. "Did you mean what you said? About me being your girlfriend."

He grinned. "I wouldn't be kitten around with something like this. It would be paws-itively awful of me."

Rolling her eyes, Marinette fought back a grin. "So you're my boyfriend."

"Well I sure hope so."

"Alright, kitty, I get it, I get it," she said with a small laugh.

Adrien's breath hitched at the sight of her smile. How could she render him completely speechless with a single smile? "I hope Nino won't mind sitting next to Alya," he said as he escorted her into the classroom. The chatter fell silent as their classmates realized that Marinette and Adrien had walked into the room arm in arm.

"What is this?" Alya asked with a sly grin.

"What? A guy can't walk with his girl to class?" Adrien asked, his face all innocence.

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh?" Chloe screeched as Adrien planted another kiss on Marinette's lips.

Yes, the new school year was off to quite the start.


End file.
